hard life have released ‘OGRE’, a song “partly inspired by Shrek”

hard life have shared new track ‘OGRE’, the second single from their upcoming album ‘onion’, set for release on 18th July via Island EMI.

The track follows recent single ‘othello’ and arrives alongside news of a UK headline tour, which will follow the band’s summer festival appearances at BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend, Truck Festival, Y NOT and Boardmasters.

‘OGRE’ combines acoustic elements with rap vocals, accompanied by a video featuring Murray Matravers as a janitor. Speaking about the track, Matravers says, “‘OGRE’ is about a situation where nobody’s done anything wrong, but that almost makes things worse. Sometimes relationships are more complicated because they lack an antagonist, and someone to hate: I’ll be your ‘OGRE’, if that gives us a clean break. This was one of the first songs I wrote for the album with Taka, and this image of onions – partly inspired by ‘Shrek’ – became central to the record. Onions are so universally recognisable, and I liked the idea of something simple yet complex.”

The album was created following Matravers’ spontaneous trip to Japan, where he met producer Taka and recorded at Shirokane’s onion studio. Matravers returned to Leicester in December 2024 to reconnect with the hard life live band ahead of their return to the stage.

‘onion’ follows the band’s 2022 album ‘MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE…’, which reached Number 2 in the UK charts.

Their dates in full read:

OCTOBER
28 O2 Academy, Leeds, UK
29 O2 Academy, Bristol, UK
30 O2 Academy Brixton, London, UK

NOVEMBER
3 The Boiler Shop, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
4 SWG3 Galvanizers, Glasgow, UK
6 Manchester Academy, Manchester, UK
10 Rock City, Nottingham, UK